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Friday, April 12, 2013

Rowing: An Adaptation

I feel it is necessary for me to
preface this post by expressing how excited I am about it. See, I
joined Portland State's crew (rowing) club in January, and it has
gradually—yet rapidly—taken over most of my life, replacing movie
nights with optional practices, dreams of flying with dreams of
rowing, and, most predominantly, replacing everyday words and phrases
with crew calls and boat terminology. I guess I should have expected
sooner the day I would write a post on this blog relating to crew.
Friends, that day has come.

But it's not entirely because of the
way crew sucked me in like the Blob to a frantic bystander that I am
writing on such a subject. Last weekend, I was in San Diego competing
in the San Diego Crew Classic, and I was walking around, I saw a
blind man wearing a competitor shirt. I started thinking, as I am
wont to do, about the technicalities of rowing with a disability. In
this man's case, I could understand how visual impairment might
actually be a sort of advantage, it forcing one to focus on hearing
and feeling the other boat members' movements to synchronize
movements. But it seemed to me certainly impossible to row with most
other physical disabilities, since rowing requires constant use of
arms, body, and legs along with uniform movements from all members in
the boat in order to keep the boat from tipping (as mine did the
other day. Good morning, Willamette River...). However, to my shock
and delight, adaptive rowing actually exists!

First, let me give you a quick rundown
on non-adaptive rowing. I am most familiar with four- and
eight-person boats. In these, there are four or eight rowers,
respectively, and one coxswain (that's me!) who faces in the opposite
direction of the rowers, steering the boat and making calls. There
are also Each rower has one oar that sticks out either to port (which
is the left side of the boat if you are facing the front of the boat,
referred to as the bow) or starboard (the left side facing bow). The
oars alternate, with one going port, then starboard, then port, etc.
There are also sculling boats, where each rower has two oars, but I
am less familiar with these. The rowers strap their feet to
stationary shoes in the boat and sit on impossibly small seats that
slide back and forth along a track. This allows them to generate
power with their legs as they drive their oars through the water.
There is a lot more to it than that, but I think that will be a
sufficient introduction for the purpose of this blog.

An adapted boat with a stationary seat and pontoons to create better balance.

Adaptive rowing began in Philadelphia
when veterans blinded in World War II competed in an Army versus Navy
race. Since then, many programs have been developed to improve and
increase opportunities for people with disabilities to row
competitively. The first rowing club created solely for people with
disabilities, the Philadelphia Rowing Program for the Disabled, was
created in 1980, and in 2002, the FISA world championships included
adaptive rowing in the regular program. Adaptive rowing was also
included in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. The sport continues to
grow and evolve today.

With adaptive rowing, changes can be
made in equipment, technique, and various other aspects of the sport,
like the calls made by the coxswain. There are also different
classifications of rowers. There are currently four adaptive rowing
classifications based on different functionalities: arms and
shoulders (AS); trunk and arms (TA); legs, trunk and arms (LTA); and
legs, trunk, and arms mixed coxed four for intellectually disabled
(LTAIDMix4+). This last one means men and women can be in the same
four-person boat with a coxswain. This one is particularly
interesting because it allows rowers with intellectual disabilities
to compete, too.

People who can use the traditional
sliding seat are likely to be in the LTA class, and those who cannot
would use adaptive stationary seats and would be in either the TA or
the AS class. Members of the TA class might have something like a
double leg amputation, cerebral palsy class five, or a low spinal
cord injury. The AS class might include athletes who need a chest
strap, like people with cerebral palsy class four or those with
higher-level spinal cord injuries. Regardless of classification, it
is extremely important that rowers, able-bodied and physically
impaired alike, push themselves to do the most that they can using
all of their abilities. Rowing is extremely physical, but it's truly
a mental sport. If you get past the metal blocks that tell you you
can't possibly keep going, then you're golden.

I could keep going on, but this post is
getting a little lengthy. I shall end with this: Give rowing a try if
you are in the mood to push yourself harder, physically, mentally,
and emotionally, than you ever have before all while having an
amazing time and getting to know people you ordinarily might not
meet. That's what PSU crew has done for me and my crew mates. (And,
when you think about it, joining a crew team shares a lot of
qualities one gets out of MHKC: a new experience, great people,
insanely close relationships, physical activity, and the wonderful
outdoors! Who could ask for more?) So check it out, my friends! Head
over to the US Rowing website's section on adaptive rowing. It's
amazing stuff.